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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Individual and Social Behaviors
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1535124

Improved jet lag recovery is associated with a weaker molecular biological clock response around the time of expected activity onset.

Provisionally accepted
Marie-Claire Boutrin Marie-Claire Boutrin *Melissa E Richardson Melissa E Richardson Feyikemi Oriola Feyikemi Oriola Samira Bolo Samira Bolo
  • Oakwood University, Huntsville, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Properly timed environmental light input to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain is crucial in maintaining the 24-hour biological rhythm (circadian rhythm). However, light exposure at the wrong time of the day-night cycle is disruptive to circadian-regulated behaviors such as the sleep-wake cycle and memory. While factors such as jet lag, variations in day length, and light at night are known disruptors to the timing of activity onset following rest, the molecular consequence of the intersection of multiple disruptions is less understood. Here, we expose mice to a jet lag paradigm under two light-dark (LD) conditions (12:12 LD and 8:16 LD) coupled with additional light exposure at night during the recovery period (known as negative masking), previously demonstrated to improve jet lag-related memory loss in mice. Our results show that jet lag exposure in both LD cycles (to a greater extent in 8:16 LD) increased the fold-change of circadian gene expression in the SCN relative to the dark onset. The further addition of light during the jet lag recovery period reduced typical changes in circadian gene expression in the SCN to minimal levels under both LD cycles. This study uncovers a novel explanation for the impact of multiple disruptive light exposures on gene expression of the molecular SCN clock in the brain.

    Keywords: jet lag recovery, Circadian gene expression, Master clock, Day length, negative masking

    Received: 26 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Boutrin, Richardson, Oriola and Bolo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Marie-Claire Boutrin, Oakwood University, Huntsville, United States

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